Republicans Get Their Way: They Are Selling Public Lands
THEY TAKE OUR LAND - WE TAKE THEIR SEATS
“We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.” I love this beautiful Teddy Roosevelt quote about the exceptional nature of American public lands and our immense responsibility to protect them. I chose to begin with inspiration because if I do not, I will likely launch into a blue streak of hair-curling four-letter words about the Republican Jackwagons who have drawn up plans to sell your public land. There’s still time to stop them, but not much, and I was on MSNBC last evening to talk about it. You can click this link to watch a portion of that interview:
Republicans (and yes - every one of the supporters of this shitshow is a Republican) made it official this week with a midnight vote slipped into the House budget.1 They joined Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, an ultra-wealthy plutocrat who is hell-bent on selling more than half a million acres, beginning with vast swaths of our land in Nevada and Utah.2 If allowed to pass, this precedent would endanger massive chunks of land across the West in every state, including Montana, and it’s all being done to benefit the wealthy and pay for tax cuts for billionaires like Elon Musk and Doug Burgum.
The GOP move to sell public lands is dangerous, evil, greedy, and anti-American. Still, their admission is somewhat of a relief because many polite public land supporters and nonprofit organizations have been reluctant or unable to throw the needed political punches, believing that Republicans would never actually do it. You may belong to an org like this or might know someone who values public lands but has been voting for Republicans. But no one can doubt it now. This GOP vote is the equivilant of Colonel Jessup spilling the stunning truth at Tom Cruise from the witness stand in a Few Good Men; “You are Goddamned right I ordered the code red!” In this instance, the spilled GOP truth is, “You are Goddamned right Republicans are selling public lands.”
Just like in the movie, it may be shocking to hear an actual admission like this, but Republicans have been diligently working toward this moment for years. That dedication is an indicator of just how serious this situation is. Beginning about a decade ago, Republican parties across the West very publicly included the “transfer” of federal public lands from the federal government to the states as a barely disguised intermediate step to sale, and it’s now an official Republican plank in MT, UT, OR, WY, ID, AK, NV, and WA. Still, some who value public lands continued voting for them, apparently believing it was just a ruse.
Other long-term anti-public lands Republican tactics meant to make sales easier include cutting funding and removing regulations with the aim of weakening the system enough that voters no longer value what they own. DOGE has supercharged this agency gutting, and it’s a travesty supported by every single elected Republican official.
Montana Senator Steve Daines, a master of this destruction himself, now occasionally utters words about “keeping public lands in public hands.” Still, his actions have played a central role in the degradation. He continues to refuse to sign on to bipartisan collaborative landscape conservation bills like the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act while gleefully fostering land swaps for the wealthy, constantly demanding an end to wilderness protections, proposing wildly irresponsible industry giveaways, and voting to gut critical environmental laws that balance industry with conservation.3
Ryan Zinke, who now feigns disapproval at the impending public land sale, has devoted much of his badly pot-marked political career to making a land sale happen. He laid the groundwork as Trump’s first secretary of the interior when he happily executed the most significant rollback of public lands protections in the nation's history. In a giveaway to wealthy corporations, Zinke revoked national monument status for portions of six monuments and hundreds of thousands of acres, which badly weakened the Antiquities Act, the very law Teddy Roosevelt used to establish national treasures like the Grand Canyon. The Natural Resources Defense Council called Zinke out with a pointed assessment: “A closer look reveals an agenda that doesn’t just undermine the conservation legacy of America’s public lands, it guts it.”4
There are hundreds of rightfully negative assessments of Zinke’s incredible corruption and disastrous public land record, but this is one of the best; “Aside from his horrific record of destroying the lands and waters he was entrusted with protecting, Zinke will also be remembered for exploiting his public office for personal gain. He managed to rack up 17 official investigations into his misuse of funds and potential corruption. Notably, Zinke used tax dollars for a vacation with his wife, mixed work travel with Republican campaign events, and entered into a shady land deal with the chairman of Halliburton, which has been a major beneficiary of Zinke’s public lands rollbacks.”5 His wealth, which barely existed before public office, now exceeds $30 million. 6
The fight is real, serious, and upon us. So what are we to do?
Zinke, Daines, and other Republicans across the country have the advantage because they won elections. But all House members and 35 senators, including Daines, are up for reelection in 2026, so we now do what we should have done before the last election. We pressure, recruit others, convince advocacy orgs to sharpen their swords, run ads, raise money, convince our Republican friends that it’s finally time to vote on this, and we call out fence sitters who let this happen in the first place. If you belong to an org, you press them into action. If you are in a family or a friend group with people who blindly vote Republican, you buck up and challenge them to do better. They can no longer squirm out of the reality; Republicans are doing this, and Republicans must be defeated.
This is not a drill, and it’s time to pressure every single sitting GOP congressperson and senator with threats of defeat in 2026. If that happens, we can get them to pull this proposal. But they do not speak nuance, you have to tell them plain and simple: YOU TAKE OUR LAND - WE TAKE YOUR SEAT.
https://apnews.com/article/public-lands-sale-nevada-utah-housing-republicans-98184c59528a92eca51ca6ab89e751cc
https://www.eenews.net/articles/republicans-add-public-land-sales-to-reconciliation-bill/
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/why-daines-giving-away-public-lands-local-revenue-and-private-property-protections
https://www.nrdc.org/bio/theo-spencer/interior-secretary-zinkes-assault-americas-public-lands
https://foe.org/impact-stories/together-stopped-ryan-zinke/
https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/2021/12/04/zinkes-financial-disclosure-shows-assets-worth-more-than-30-million/8870157002/
It is bonkers that any Montana rep would ever support selling public lands. And even more bonkers than any Montanan would vote for them. What will it take for Montanans to regain their senses and see past the fabricated culture war that is costing us everything we hold dear??!!
Thank you for calling out Daines and Zinke for their lies.